'Ditch white philosophers', students tell London university

Students at a London university have launched a bid to overhaul their white-dominated philosophy reading list to represent a more diverse selection.

Members of the School of Oriental and African Studies' (Soas) student union say "the majority of philosophers" assigned should be from Africa and Asia as part of a wider drive to "decolonise" the university.

Their proposed changes would see founding figures of Western philosophy, such as Plato and Kant, reduced to minor figures on the syllabus.

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Proponents say a more diverse reading list is in keeping with the university's status as a globally recognised centre for African and Asian studies.

"Soas's focus is on Asia and Africa and therefore the foundations of its theories should be presented by Asian or African philosophers," the union argues in its manifesto for 2017.

However, the demand has sparked a backlash from some academics and sections of the press.

Philosopher Sir Roger Scruton, who has previously warned of a censorship culture in the UK's universities, told the Mail on Sunday the students had displayed their "ignorance" about philosophy.

He said: "You can't rule out a whole area of intellectual endeavour without having investigated it and clearly they haven't investigated what they mean by white philosophy.

"If they think there is a colonial context from which Kant's Critique of Pure Reason arose, I would like to hear it."

The union's campaign "comes after education leaders warned that universities will be forced to pander to the demands of 'snowflake' students, however unreasonable they might be", says the Daily Telegraph, referring to government proposals to place student satisfaction at the heart of a new ranking system.

The Sun simply labels the Soas union "barmy".

However, Dr Deborah Gabriel, founder of Black British Academics, defended the students.

"Teaching is often based on very narrow criteria and often tends to be eurocentric," she told The Independent.

She added the students were simply "calling on scholars to meet the criteria of their role to teach from different cultural contexts".